Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As Minister of State, I have been tasked with chairing a new residential land management and development group within the Department on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Murphy, with the aim of overseeing and driving the strategic management and development of housing on State land, with monitoring and accelerating the delivery of housing on residentially zoned lands, particularly on strategic sites in areas of greatest demand, and with assessing the availability of residential development land. I am keenly interested in how we handle this, and it is an issue we have discussed at committee on numerous occasions.

A development agency is worthy of consideration at national level, as it can provide an opportunity for a new approach to Government land management that drives the renewal of strategic areas that are not being utilised to the full potential and delivers the strategic outcomes of the national planning framework.

What the Deputy wants us to do is what we are trying to do. On publicly owned lands, it is our job to deliver, and we will do so, thousands of social houses and affordable homes. We own approximately 800 sites, which will provide for in or around 50,000 social and affordable houses. The Deputy should not try to muddy the water. We are doing what we are doing and are making progress. He might not like that progress, but we are achieving it and are continuing on our journey.

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